As a conductor, leading the Irish Chamber Orchestra in Bartók, Haydn, and cello concertos

By Peter Alexander

Gábor Takács-Nagy. Photo courtesy of CU, Boulder.

Gábor Takács-Nagy is coming home.

The founding first violinist of CU’s resident Takács Quartet lived in Boulder for six years, 1986–92, until a hand problem forced him to withdraw from playing. He returns to Boulder Friday as a conductor, leading the Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) in a concert of music by Haydn, C.P.E. Bach and Bartók (7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in Mackey Auditorium).

Takács-Nagy’s place in the Takács Quartet was taken in 1993 by English violinist Edward Dusinberre, who remains the quartet’s first violinist. Of the original quartet, violinist Károly Schranz and cellist András Fejér remain.

The Nov. 6 concert will also feature cellist István Várdai playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major and C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172. Also on the program are the Symphony No. 49 in F minor by Haydn (“La Passione”) and the Divertimento for String Orchestra by Bartók.

“The Irish Chamber Orchestra are really good, close friends, all of them in the orchestra,” Takács-Nagy says. “The orchestra is fantastic with this (program). I’m really very happy to go back to Boulder after so many years. It will be a homecoming. We will have a dinner after, and I’m so happy I’m counting the days.

“I’m really so happy and grateful to [members of the quartet] that they continue what we started together, on such an unbelievably high level.”

Read more in Boulder Weekly

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Irish Chamber Orchestra. Photo courtesy of CU, Boulder.

CU Presents: Irish Chamber Orchestra
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor, with István Várdai, cello

Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor
C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172
Haydn Cello Concerto in C major
Bartók: Divertimento for String Orchestra

7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6
Macky Auditorium

Tickets